There's Always A Story

One of my favorite things about interviewing people is the lessons that stick with me long after an essay or podcast episode is published. For a 2024 Boston Globe Magazine essay I wrote about ageism in the workplace, I had the delight of reconnecting with neuroscientist Dan Levitin, author of Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives.

As I mentioned in a recent post, life has been very full. This summer is also unusual in that I don’t have any full weeks off — not ideal, I know, but this is my current state working towards a clear, relatively near-term future vision. Laurel will also head to medical school soon — a plane instead of a train or car ride away — which is exciting and also will be a big adjustment. All of this is to say that I was deeply ready for a long weekend with my crew.

At the end of last year, I had a conversation with the wonderful Sarah Hart-Unger that made me rethink my rather curmudgeonly outlook on longer-range planning. Definitely listen to the full conversation — and get Sarah’s book, Best Laid Plans: A Simple Planning System for Living a Life That You Love.

Quick announcement: As I mentioned in my newHolding The Roomnewsletter last week, I’m holding a free office hour today, June 23, 2-3pm ET. Hop over to register and I’ll add you to the private calendar invite! When Jon and I moved to Canada for my Ph.D. program in 1998, our first apartment was a two-bedroom above an arcade on Princess Street, the main thoroughfare in Kingston, Ontario.

This week’s post is about two things I care deeply about: Nurturing relationships and finding joy and curiosity in food experimentation. The impetus was this: There are a couple of neighborhood families where the parents are wonderful and we largely connect around schedules and transit for our kids. These two families are do’ers in the sense that they connect Vi to all sorts of cool adventures in town and otherwise.

Over the past month or so — no doubt related to Laurel’s recent college graduation — I have been going down memory lane, experiencing nostalgia and awe. Looking at these photos, it’s been impossible not to be reminded of the evolution of tech. For example: When Jon and I first got a cell phone circa 2001, we shared it. As in, “Hey babe, do you want to take The Phone with you or should I?” Around 2003, when I started my postdoctoral fellowship, I started using a Blackberry.

It is bizarre that Laurel’s college graduation was less than three weeks ago, because it feels like it happened 17 years ago. Two thoughts have stayed with me — first from her Commencement, and then from celebrating our dear family friend Lucy’s graduation last weekend. First, I’m grateful both graduation speakers normalized not having a plan — non-linear paths are to be expected.

Including 3 gold star winners I made my first farmstand stop of the season over the weekend and even though the offerings were limited since it’s early, wow, what a joy! I bought 5 heads of lettuce, 3 bundles of radishes, 2 bundles of asparagus, a giant bag of spinach, a bag of gold potatoes, and mint, basil, and cilantro plants to plant in our herb bed (which Jon recently cleaned out and rebuilt since the wood was rotting).

The in-between moments that meant the world to me Given my former life as an academic, I’m no stranger to pomp and circumstance. That life feels and is far in my past, so while I appreciated the formal trappings of Laurel’s college graduation this past weekend, it was the moments beyond the pomp and circumstance that meant the world to me. Why?

These days I love Sundays extra hard. My strategic advisory work has been full throttle the past few months, so Saturday is often spent catching up on podcast production, writing, and various forms of adulting. On Sundays I lean into rest. And while I’m typically meh about manufactured holidays, knowing that this past Sunday was Mother’s Day did bring about further awareness to cultivate my day — to not do anything that felt dreaded or obligatory.